Community Forum

Friday, August 19, 2011

Boredom

BOREDOM

Theodore De Dumas

Being bored! A feeling that has taken a hold of many in the population of the world.

By definition, bored means "to weary by dullness, tedious repetition, unwelcome attentions, etc." (Random House Dictionary). At the most basic level, being bored is nothing other than being tired of a series of events in your life. Tired of having the same old stuff happen to you, tired of doing the same things, tired of the same experiences, this is the basis of boredom, even though it does involve other aspects.

Now when you really think about it, it makes no sense to ever be bored, especially with the amount of different subjects and skills one can learn and master in the time you spend being bored. Being bored is a mental illness, it is a psychological illness in which a person has lost interest in growing, and they no longer feel comfortable doing the same old things they are used to. The scary part about it is that many people are bored every single day for hours. Various organizations realized people didn't have ideas and concentrated goals, so they created things like the television in order to literally give them a direction. You can't complain about it because before that you weren't doing anything anyways.

Those who are self educated will many times say that they became so very easily, by dedicating their time to advancing themselves in a particular field. All that is required to be an expert is to have knowledge in your field. Earl Nightingale believed that an individual could become a world class expert in any field by simply studying every available resource (in that field) for an hour a day for just a year! He didn't say for centuries, but just a year. When you calculate it, one hour a day, would equal 365 hours. All the way through that would equal about 15 days, rounding it off, two weeks straight of studying. That's not very long at all. When asked about his daily life, Bill Gates said he reads at least 2-4 hours a day, and another 2 hours he watches educational videos. I doubt Bill Gates is bored, and he probably has mastered many different fields of study with that time.

In economics, there is a term called opportunity cost which is the value of the next best choice that one gives up when making a decision. When one decides to be bored (this definitely is a personal decision). By being bored, the cost of your time is being spent. Think about what you could be doing with all that time. We are not talking about doing any old thing with your time, because you can sit around and watch television and be "doing something". The people that try to keep their schedules extremely busy so they are never idle are actually evading a problem, they are evading facing themselves.

Similarly, boredom has polarities, in one aspect, it deals with being static in life, and on the other hand it deals with the inability to meditate. Meditation will actually help many people who are bored. They can simply stop searching for stimulation (i.e. "I'm bored what should I do now?") quiet their mind, and let their inner self give them direction. People who begin to meditate often times discover something about themselves that pushes them into a new field of study or interest.

But, if you are simply bored because you don't have anything to do, then think about all the different things you could master and even possibly make a new stream of income off of. Subjects range from sociology, psychology, physics, music, neurology, persuasion, linguistics, archeology, history, law, commerce, nutrition, technology, writing, vocabulary, conspiracy history, media, fictional literature, speed reading, self development, yoga, martial arts, sports, you get the point? There are too many things out there to be mastered for you to sit around and be bored. Learn a new skill! Learn to play an instrument, learn to read faster, improve your word usage, learn how to become a better lover, grow as an individual! While you are sitting around being bored, you could potentially have mastered tons of subject and skills. Remember back in the day when you heard about a person who was a painter, architect, musician, doctor, poet, fencer, and a sexual guru? Well that person used his or her time wisely and mastered multiple fields. Think how much more valuable you can become by investing time in yourself rather than being bored.

Truthfully, being bored shows that your inner reality is one of stagnation, lack, and non-growth. It shows that you are stuck at a certain level, and refuse to pick up yourself and become better. In nature as well as the economy, things that aren't being used end up dying out and being recycled. Of course I am not implying that you will die, but you probably get the point!

Stop being bored and learn to allocate your time better into things that will help your life and potentially the rest of the world.

Thanks for reading!

Theodore De Dumas

"We live in deeds, not years. In thoughts not breaths, in feelings, not in figures on a dial."

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